Tales of the Star Wolf

Star Wolf #5

by David Gerrold

David Gerrold is an American science fiction author who started his career in 1966 while a college student by submitting an unsolicited story outline for the television series Star Trek. He was invited to submit several premises, and the one chosen by Star Trek was filmed as "The Trouble with Tribbles" and became one of the most popular episodes of the original series. Gerrold's novelette "The Martian Child" won both Hugo and Nebula awards.  The Star Wolf series of novels by David Gerrold is centered on the star ship Star Wolf and its Voyage of the Star Wolf (1990), The Middle of Nowhere (1995), Blood and Fire (2004), and Yesterday's Children (1972) which is actually an earlier novel that features the same main character, later significantly expanded and republished as Starhunt (1985)—it occurs prior to the other novels in the series' main continuity. The Star Wolf is a "Liberty Ship," officially designated the LS-1187. Plagued by misfortune throughout the series, without any confirmed kills to its credit, it was denied a name by Command. Gerrold had planned to develop this concept into a TV series. The later novels were written after the TV concept had been presented. The Star Wolf series reflects Gerrold's contention that, due to the distances involved, space battles would be more like submarine hunts than the dogfights usually portrayed—in most cases the ships doing battle wouldn't even be able to see each other. Gerrold referred to the concept as "World War II in space," and intended it as a stylistic opposite of Star Trek (particularly its "Next Generation" incarnation) by setting the main characters on a small, dingy spacecraft that had little respect in the fleet rather than on the flagship. Tales of the Star Wolf includes Voyage of the Star Wolf, The Middle of Nowhere, and Blood and Fire.  

755 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2004

Reviews

[E.T.Smith]

Definitively in the class of "hard men making hard decisions in a hard universe." Honestly, I had to give up after the second part; I'd had enough of grim-faced officers justifying terrible deeds due to an ongoing state of abject crisis that didn't allow for the coddling tolerated by a stable society don't you understand this is a war of survival?! I won't bother to reiterate why that is both a juvenile and self-destructive ideology (and more than a touch fascist, especially when the justifications are fictional), but the way the plot kept hitting on it repeatedly made it even more unpleasant.

If you can ignore that ... the detailed and thought-out description of the ship and it's crew is interesting, and the "Morethan" badguys are amusing for being such straightforward space-werewolves.

[John Steiner]

The author, David Gerrold also wrote the "Trouble with Tribbles" episode of original Star Trek series. That right there lets you know it'll be an entertain read with excellent humor. But that's not everything. The story draws readers into well researched navy traditions flushed out and distinct character delelopment and intense scenarios that has one squeezing the sides of the book.

The science portion of the story isn't the greatest, but it is written to where the failings of theory aren't important. Whether you're a committed trekkie or, like me, a fan of excellent science fiction story telling in general this is a great book.

[Mark]

Excellent SciFi. The trilogy includes the book Blood and Fire, the ST:TNG script that never came to be. The adventures of a lonely ship in a great war. The science and background are well thought out.